NASCAR Power Rankings After Tyler Reddick Picks Up Fourth Win Of The Season At Darlington

If you’re a NASCAR fan hoping that Tyler Reddick might come back to the field after winning the first three Cup Series races of the 2026 season, you were dealt a massive blow on Sunday afternoon.

After his trifecta of victories at Daytona, Atlanta, and Circuit of the Americas, Reddick seemed to be leveling off slightly with solid, yet unspectacular, performances at Phoenix and Las Vegas.

But the 23XI superstar returned to the top spot this weekend, qualifying on the pole at Darlington before dropping to the back due to battery issues, only to fight back to take the lead and the victory.

In doing so, Reddick tightened his grip on the top spot in our latest NASCAR Power Rankings.

2026 NASCAR Cup Series Power Rankings: Week 6

Reddick’s victory marked the third in a row that featured a driver who had to fight through the field after issues in the pits, following in the footsteps of Ryan Blaney at Phoenix and Denny Hamlin in Vegas.

His issues meant that Brad Keselowski, who continues to impress as an owner-driver for Roush-Fenway-Keselowski Racing, claimed wins in each of the first two stages of the race.

Keselowski’s performance sees him enter the rankings for the first time this season. But he’s far from the only driver to see notable movement in this week’s rankings.

10) Brad Keselowski

When it first became obvious that tire wear and management would play a major role in Sunday’s race, it should have also become obvious that Keselowski, a veteran of the sport with a championship and a pair of victories at Darlington on his resume, would be a contender.

He qualified in fifth place for Sunday’s race and ran inside the top five for the entire day, winning a pair of stages and then taking home a second-place finish.

The performance vaulted Keselowski up into the top 10 of both our power rankings and the NASCAR Cup Series standings.

Last Week: UR NASCAR Point Standings: 9th (-143)

9) Kyle Larson

For about 99 percent of Sunday’s race at Darlington, a place where he has seven top-five finishes and a victory, Larson ran strongly.

After qualifying in fourth position, he finished stage one in fifth and stage two in third. While he didn’t appear to have the speed to contend for a victory, it appeared as if Larson would finish in or around the top 10, giving him a solid day when it comes to accumulating points.

However, with 10 laps to go, Larson messed up the entry to turn one and hit the wall, breaking a toe link on his car in the process. The issue caused Larson to limp home, losing a pair of laps in the process and finishing 32nd.

Last Week: 7th NASCAR Point Standings: 10th (-149)

8) William Byron

Byron, like his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Larson, is traditionally strong at Darlington. However, he struggled to find the same type of speed at the track this weekend that he’s had in the past.

Byron qualified in 13th before sneaking into the final spot in the top 10 to end the first stage and finishing seventh in stage two.

Unlike Larson, he was able to keep himself out of trouble in the final stage and came home with a perfectly solid eighth-place finish. It may not be what he and his team hoped for going into the weekend. But it’s not a finish that he’s likely to be too disappointed about, given the way the race played out.

Last Week: 8th NASCAR Point Standings: 6th (-134)

7) Chris Buescher

Buescher qualified on the third row for Sunday’s race, right next to his teammate Keselowski, and spent most of the race itself just behind his teammate.

He took home a sixth-place finish in stage one and then finished as the runner-up to Keselowski in stage two. It appeared he may contend for the win late in the race, but a miscommunication between he and Reddick on the final round of green flag pit stops sent Buescher into the wall and nearly ruined his day.

Ultimately, he fought back for a ninth-place finish, which wasn’t quite what he may have hoped for, but continued a strong start to the 2026 season.

Last Week: 9th NASCAR Point Standings: 7th (-137)

6) Christopher Bell

Simply put, Christopher Bell and his team just completely missed it this weekend at Darlington. The multi-groove track with high tire wear would seem to play into Bell’s strengths, but he has just three top-five finishes in fourteen career races at the track and zero stage wins.

Bell struggled to find speed all week, qualifying in 22nd and never really moving much throughout the race, failing to finish in the top 10 in either stage and ultimately finishing back in 19th, the worst of the four Joe Gibbs Racing drivers by a wide margin.

For whatever reason, Bell and company just can’t seem to get a firm grasp on things when it comes to Darlington.

Last Week: 5th NASCAR Point Standings: 8th (-143)

5) Chase Elliott

Things looked promising for Elliott when he qualified on the second row, in third position, for Sunday’s race. But once the green flag flew, he began to drop back through the field.

Elliott maintained enough speed to grab a seventh-place finish in the opening stage, netting him four points in the process. But he missed out on points in stage two and then ultimately fell back to 15th when the checkered flag flew.

It was far from a catastrophic day for the sport’s most popular driver. But it certainly didn’t live up to the expectations of either him or his team.

Last Week: 4th NASCAR Point Standings: 5th (-131)

4) Denny Hamlin

Coming off a win last week at Las Vegas, Denny Hamlin had to feel pretty confident coming to a track where he’s been historically good, winning four times and finishing in the top five 14 times in 28 career races.

But Hamlin never really found the speed to come anywhere close to Reddick, or the top five, this past weekend. He qualified in ninth position and finished outside the top 10 in the opening stage.

In stage two, Hamlin worked his way up through the field using some strategy, but a loose wheel ultimately caused him to plummet back down the running order. He fought back for a solid ninth-place finish. But given the expectations entering the weekend, that result had to come as a slight disappointment.

Last Week: 6th NASCAR Point Standings: 4th (-122)

3) Bubba Wallace

On paper, a 34th-place finish that saw him run most of the race several laps down would see Bubba Wallace take a big hit in the power rankings

But the finish isn’t indicative of the speed he brought to the track or Wallace’s performance in the car. The 23XI driver qualified alongside his teammate Reddick on the front row, starting second and bringing his car home in fourth in the opening stage.

However, an issue on the pit stop between the first and second stage dropped Wallace deep into the pack, where he became a victim of circumstance when Hamlin spun out Erik Jones, and Wallace had nowhere to go.

So while the finish itself is hugely disappointing, Wallace and his team have to be encouraged by the speed they showed for much of the weekend.

Last Week: 2nd NASCAR Point Standings: 3rd (-120)

2) Ryan Blaney

Blaney probably didn’t have the pace to compete with Reddick for the race victory on Sunday. But it would be nice if his pit crew had given him a chance.

After qualifying in seventh, the Team Penske star worked his way up the running order for a third-place finish at the end of the opening stage. However, on the ensuing pit stop, his team left a wheel loose, causing him to stop again to tighten it and start the second stage in the back of the pack.

Blaney fought back to finish just outside the top 10 in stage two, before another slow stop dropped him back to 20th late in the race. On the television broadcast, they noted that Blaney’s crew ranked 33rd of 36th teams on the year in pit stop time, and that’s not including additional mistakes.

Somehow, he managed to drive back through the field to finish third. But in a tight, season-long race for a championship, those types of issues will eventually prove critical.

Last Week: 3rd NASCAR Point Standings: 2nd (-95)

1) Tyler Reddick

What more can you possibly say about Tyler Reddick and his team over at 23XI Racing this season?

Through six races, he now has four victories, and Sunday’s was perhaps the most dominant of them all, even despite issues with the car’s battery.

Reddick led three times for 77 laps on Sunday despite the issues, and came from well behind Keselowski to chase him down and pass him for the lead in the final run of the race. Right now, the 45 team is the best in the series and it’s not particularly close.

Granted, we’re only one-sixth of the way through the 2026 season. But thus far, it’s shaping up to be a potentially historic season for Tyler Reddick.

Last Week: 1st NASCAR Point Standings: 1st